Newcastle Uni football teams forced to change sexist names

Two football teams at Newcastle university have been forced to change their names after accusations of sexism.

The teams, Shakthar Last Night and Shagther Senseless, were forced to drop their sexist overtones but were still able to retain some of the original flair: Shakthar LN and Shakthar FC.

The switch comes after action was taken by the Students union.

Gender Equality and Welfare Officers intervened after a complaint was sent in by an outraged male student. The letter, which took offence from the ‘inherent sexism of the name,’ kicked off the move to get them altered.

‘The sexist joke of ‘shagging senseless’ is not only derogatory and offensive to women,’ said the letter, ‘but also to those of us who find such humour as contributing to the macho and crass ‘lad culture‘ which is sadly associated with football.’

The matter was then picked up by the Student Union, who stated that ‘the university have promised to take more care with intermural team names and have promised that such names will not be used again.’

The manager of Shagther Senseless replied by saying ‘to be honest we didn’t mean to offend anyone but if people find it offensive then we apologise for this and move on with a new name.’

While Shakthar Last Night and Shagther Senseless now have new names, other Newcastle teams Dyslexic Untied, Queens of Everything, and Sex Panthers Athletic are still playing, names intact.

The offensive names play upon that of Shakhtar Donetsk, a Ukranian club that often features in the Champions League.

One third year Historian Matt, commented “the name is obviously offensive and pretty insensitive’ adding ‘football is very sensitive to these issues at the moment, im sure they didn’t mean to cause any harm but you can see why it has been taken badly’.